According to Diep Nguyen, the owner of the enterprise, the company
decided to import such a large number of real trees after the first two
attracted a great deal of attention from customers last Christmas.

“The import procedure is quite complicated, so we had to
place our orders in August and received the support from the US National
Christmas Tree Association”, she told Tuoi Tre daily.

Even before these Christmas trees docked at the port in HCM
City, half of them were booked online with costs ranging from 3 – 8 million VND
(130-150 USD), depending on the height of the tree (from 1.8 m to 2.7m). The
buyers were mostly foreign expatriates or wealthy local families.

While the real trees seem to be for a group of limited
customers, the plastic ones – in different height, colours and eye-catching
decorations, were available in every supermarket and shopping mall across the
city.

All the Christmas shops located on Luong Nhu Hoc and Hai
Thuong Lan Ong Streets in District 5 started their high business season
from mid-October.

Ho Thi Minh Tam, the owner of a shop on Luong Nhu Hoc
Street, District 5, said all 20 plastic trees and nearly 1,000 ball ornaments
that she imported from Thailand for the first time had been sold out within a
week.

According to Tam, those products attracted customers
because their prices are the same or even slightly cheaper than other similar
Made in Vietnam products.

Over the past two years, Christmas gifts and ornaments from
Thailand have increased their presence in the Vietnam market.

Ho Kim Cuc, who runs a Christmas shop on Hai Thuong Lan Ong
Street, said her shop had rented 15 large-size Christmas trees out to different
offices with prices ranging from 2-4 million VND (87-175USD), which were just
one-third the purchase price.

This year, the Christmas market witnessed significant
participation of many local producers.

According to a representative of the Kim Lap Christmas shop
on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street, two thirds of the 6,000 products that his shop
sold in the first 10 days of this month are products that are made in Vietnam.

The increase in Vietnamese Christmas products was thanks to
the increasing awareness of local enterprises of the potential market. That was why they hadpaid attention to improving both quality and design of products.

Owner of the Phuong Thao shop on Luong Nhu Hoc Street,
Nguyen Phuong Thai, said she stored 6,000 Christmas costumes created by local
producers.

“With 20 different designs the price was 10 percent to 20 percent cheaper than other
imported costumes. That was why the ones made by local producers have magnetised
customers. At the moment, thousands of Christmas costumes that we stored are
almost sold out”, she said.

Vo Hong Tan, director of Doma Vina – a company specialisng
on paper quilling products said his company introduced to the market more
than 2,000 products in this festive season, of which the best sellers were Santa
Claus, X’Mas tree and bell.

Like any other previous years, the seasonal service – Santa Claus
delivers gifts to children – was still a flourishing business, as the demand
from customers has increased year after year.

Ngo Thi Phuong Loan, owner of the Beyeume gift shop on 3
Thang 2 Street in District 10, said that her shop had to recruit a “Santa Claus”
a month before Christmas.

According to her, the service fee this year has increased
between 15 percent and 20 percent compared to last year, when it was between
90,000 VND and 100,000 VND to between 120,000 VND and 130,000 VND.

“However, that price was for the service offered a few days
before Christmas. A day before Christmas Eve, the price was more, at 160,000 VND, and at 200,000 VND on Christmas Eve”, Loan said.